Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
armchair linguistics. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
armchair linguistics, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
armchair linguistics in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
armchair linguistics you have here. The definition of the word
armchair linguistics will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
armchair linguistics, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Etymology based on the perceived image of a linguist sitting in an armchair and pondering about language phenomena rather than carrying out field work. Compare armchair general, etc.
Noun
armchair linguistics (uncountable)
- (linguistics, informal) Any linguistic enterprise employing introspection rather than empirical methods, such as elicitation.
- Antonym: field linguistics
1991, Charles J. Fillmore, ““Corpus Linguistics” or “Computer-aided armchair linguistics””, in Werner Winter, editor, Directions in Corpus Linguistics: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 82, Stockholm, 4-8 August 1991, Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 35:Armchair linguistics does not have a good name in some linguistics circles. A caricature of the armchair linguist is something like this. He sits in a deep soft comfortable armchair, with his eyes closed and his hands clasped behind his head. Once in a while he opens his eyes, sits up abruptly shouting, "Wow, what a neat fact!", grabs his pencil, and writes something down. Then he paces around for a few hours in the excitement of having come still closer to knowing what language is really like.
Derived terms
Translations
linguistics not based on empirical methods